Never believe the customer service guy who has bad news
Dec 27, 2009 How To Piss Me Off
I just got off of the phone with Time Warner Cable. I wanted to cancel our premium channels. For as long as I can remember we’ve been paying about $33 a month for four sets of premium channels (HBO, Cinemax, etc.). We don’t use them anywhere near enough for that to be worth it, but we like things to be easy. We like to just record Entourage and Weeds and watch them soon after they’ve aired. The included on demand channels were handy – that is, when they happened to have something we wanted to watch. Again, convenient when we used it, but not worth $33 a month.
So, I did an online chat with Time Warner to make sure that I was reading our bill right: that if we canceled those channels we would save more than $30 a month. I was afraid that it was some kind of package, but no, the chat confirmed that I was reading the bill right.
So, after consulting with The Ass (who never needs to be convinced to save money) I called Time Warner to cancel. Easy enough, right?
But wait: this Time Warner guy on the phone was telling me that I would only save $5 a month! What?
Luckily for me, I had clicked the box that said “Send me a transcript of my chat session.” When I told phone guy what chat guy had said, he put me on hold and then came back and apologized. I was correct, he said. I canceled the channels.
See, the thing is, when I went through the automated list of choices at the beginning of the call to route me to the right department, I had to press the choice for canceling service. So before I even spoke with someone that person knew that I wanted to pay Time Warner less money each month, and it’s his job to stop that from happening. And if I hadn’t just had that online chat, I might not have pressed him. I might have just accepted what he said and kept the channels.
So the lessons? Oh, there are many.
- Take a good look at your bills and ask yourself if you’re paying for something you don’t need. When we signed up with Time Warner about seven years ago, we thought we needed those channels. Needs change, finances change, but we didn’t re-evaluate until now. If we had used the channels for a few months and then asked ourselves if we really needed them, we would have saved over $2,500 by now.
- Get it in writing. Whenever you’re able to tell someone “I have it in writing” you’ve got a much better shot at getting what you want.
- Don’t accept what the first person tells you if it isn’t what you want to hear. From now on, if something like that happens again, I’ll say ‘Thank you,” hang up, and call back again, hoping for a different person. Customer service reps are human, and whether they’re being purposely deceptive or don’t know what they’re talking about, you should confirm that what they’re saying is correct. But don’t ask that first person to connect you with someone else: that will give them a chance to circle their wagons.
Originally posted on Selfish Mom. All opinions expressed on this website come straight from Amy unless otherwise noted. Please visit Amy’s Full Disclosure page for more information.
These boobs were made for talkin’
Nov 30, 2009 How To Piss Me Off
Have you seen this commercial for Reebok Women’s EasyTone Shoes
For the record, while I don’t think the second commercial is great, I think it targets its audience a little better: women who wish people were staring at their butts instead of listening to what they’re saying.
Ugh. Or maybe I’m just pissed at both commercials since my boobs and butt will never look like those!
Originally posted on Selfish Mom. All opinions expressed on this website come straight from Amy unless otherwise noted. Please visit Amy’s Full Disclosure page for more information.
Tags: commercial, Reebok EasyTone Shoes
Hey Burger King, you’re getting timed for a reason!
Aug 14, 2009 How To Piss Me Off
Last night on the way home from camp the kids and I went through the Burger King Drive-Through. When we were next in line for the window I noticed that the guy in front of me had his reverse lights on, so I stayed back about 10 feet – I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen people back up for something, forget they’re in reverse, then hit the gas. When it was my turn at the window, the BK cashier asked me to pull forward and then back up. I was so surprised and busy processing what she was saying and trying not to back up into the window with my mirror and asking for salt and checking the orders that I didn’t get a chance to ask her why. But I guessed that she had asked the guy in front of me to do the same thing. As I was leaving I looked in the review mirror I saw that the guy behind me was doing the same thing as well. WTF?
It bothered me all night that I couldn’t figure out what the purpose was. I went back in my mind to my McDonald’s and Arby’s days, but at both places I made the food, I didn’t work the Drive-Through. Then, finally, it hit me: I’ve seen big timers in some restaurants, timing how long each Drive-Through order was taking. There must be a sensor somewhere that stops the clock and starts timing the next order! Was she asking each car to stop the clock on their order so that the restaurant’s stats would look good?
I went back this morning, in the interest of investigation – not because I was dying for a Croissan’wich. Once again, when I got to the window, I was asked to pull forward and back up. I said “Why? Are you trying to stop the timer?” She said yes. I said something to the effect of “But that’s cheating. How will the process get any faster if they think you’re already really fast?” I know enough about fast food restaurants to know that they really study this stuff. There are systems that figure out when you should drop fries based on how many cars are in the Drive-Through lines. There are McDonald’s that have outsourced their Drive-Through order-taking jobs to call centers. Corporate sure as hell wants to know for how long people are sitting in the Drive-Through.
The BK worker admitted that yes, it was cheating, but that the restaurant is given time goals each week and they’re not meeting them. So I said something like, “But how will the times get faster if you don’t acknowledge that there’s a problem?” She told me I didn’t have to pull forward if I didn’t want to. I’m not really sure it was necessary for her to tell me that. Was the alternative for her to hold my food hostage until I pulled forward?
When I go through a Drive-Through, I want the process to be fast. And more often than not here in Brooklyn, the process is anything but. So as a customer, it is absolutely not in my best interest to help Burger King trick corporate into thinking that they’re already speedy. I’m insulted that they’d ask.
Originally posted on Selfish Mom. All opinions expressed on this website come straight from Amy unless otherwise noted. Please visit Amy’s Full Disclosure page for more information.
Tags: Burger King
Gee Midwest, what a difference a year makes
Jul 31, 2009 How To Piss Me Off
Every year, I fly a bunch of times on jetBlue, occasionally on some other airline if jetBlue is full or the schedule doesn’t work, and then once on Midwest to Kansas City with the kids to visit my dad and step-mom. jetBlue is usually as good as it gets for affordable air travel. Weather and FAA rules kind of screwed me earlier this week when I was trying to get back from Chicago, but throughout the jetBlue crew was nice, shared as much info with us as they could, and even added a flight the next morning to get us all home. You can see why they’re always my first choice.
But jetBlue doesn’t fly from NYC to Kansas City, so I always pick Midwest. They’ve proven over the years to be reliable, and they serve hot chocolate chip cookies in-flight. They never have enough vegetarian meals for purchase, I’m talking never once when I’ve flown them, but whatever, I know by now to bring my own food. And they don’t have TVs. But again, whatever. It’s two flights a year.
One thing I’ve always liked about the NYC-to-Kansas flight on Midwest is that there have always been four seats across on the whole plane. I sit with my daughter, and my son sits across the aisle, usually with a businessman who is initially annoyed that he’s sitting with a kid, but my son wins him over with his politely lisped questions and good behavior (he’s an awesome flier).
So, I just went to the Midwest website to check in for tomorrow morning’s flight. When I purchased the tickets a few weeks ago, I noticed that I wasn’t given a chance to choose our seats, and since I only fly them once a year I couldn’t remember if I usually get to do that at purchase or not. Well, when I checked in online, I had a couple of surprises. Number one, more than half of the plane (the back half) now has five seats across, instead of four. Number two, seats had already been chosen for us. And three, none of us were sitting together. We each had a window seat, spread over four rows. My kids ages are on the reservation, so they know that they just separated five- and eight-year-olds from their mom for a three-plus-hour flight.
But wait, I don’t have to keep those seats! Why, look at this! For only $35 extra per seat, I can purchase a “signature seat” in the roomier part of the plane, and we can all sit together! Now, I have no problem paying for upgrades. I always buy the “extra legroom” seat on jetBlue. I do last-minute upgrades to first class when available (they’re usually pretty cheap at that point). I don’t mind spending extra money to get more of something. But I don’t like to be tricked into it. I feel like Midwest has set things up completely on purpose so that I’ll say “Oh my gosh, I can’t let my kids sit where I can see them! I have to buy the upgrade!” Not to mention, it’s not an upgrade, it’s just a restoration to what I got as a matter of course last year.
I’m not going to do it. I’m going to speak nicely to the gate agent tomorrow morning. And if they won’t put us together, then the people around us are going to have to put up with it. I’ll make it as easy on them as possible – it’s not the other passengers’ fault, and I’m guessing that someone will offer to switch with me so that I can at least sit with my daughter. But I’m not going to pay just because a bunch of people sat in a boardroom and said “OK, how can we pigeonhole people into paying more and make them think they’re getting an upgrade?” Nope, not gonna do it. And if the situation is the same next time I fly to Kansas City, I’ll be looking for another airline.
UPDATE: So, as it turned out I didn’t really get to make any kind of issue of this. I was at LaGuardia Airport during Saturday morning’s bomb scare, and as soon as the airport re-opened we were rushed through security to get to our flight (they were trying to get all of the scheduled flights out as fast as possible, in order, and ours was one of the first). As we were getting on the plane I mentioned to the gate agent that my kids weren’t seated with me, so he put my son in the first row and me and Fiona in the second. He thought those seats were free when he did it, but they weren’t and so at least two people had to sit farther back instead of in the great seats they thought they had. One guy glared at me as he went by, the other didn’t seem to care. At that point there was really nothing to be done. I’ve never seen them load a plane and get it in the air so fast. So, yes, I felt bad. I wanted us to sit together, but I didn’t want to kick other people out of their good seats to do it.
Originally posted on Selfish Mom. All opinions expressed on this website come straight from Amy unless otherwise noted. Please visit Amy’s Full Disclosure page for more information.
Tags: jetBlue, Midwest Airlines, seat selection
Mohamed at Subway, I’m calling you out
May 11, 2009 How To Piss Me Off
I’m over on the NYC Moms Blog today, bitching about the completely shitty treatment I got at Subway over the weekend. It feels good to embarrass someone publicly. Hmmm. Not sure this is a good color on me.
In this economy, Subway can’t afford to dis my kid
And yes, I’m aware that I misspelled “diss.” Spellcheck doesn’t work on slang. Go ahead, dis me for it.
Originally posted on Selfish Mom
Tags: nyc moms blog, subway
